Refried Beans

I last posted about my defunct PS3... well I'm happy to say that I've done a little more cooking to wondrous effect; I've managed to reverse my YLOD using the hair dryer trick!

The trick is detailed in the following Youtube video posted by terminator2u4:

If you fancy trying it out yourself please look at the full description for the video as it contains specific instructions not covered during the video, such as exact timings for heating, cooling and pausing.

I first tried it using the first of the two heat settings on the hair dryer (thanks to my housemate Laura for lending it to me) but that didn't work so I tried again using the maximum setting.  I also used a desk fan on maximum to cool the system down for the full 40 mins recommended before trying to boot it up (thanks to my other housemate J for lending the fan).  The PS3 is now working, I've copied all my savegames to the cloud, restored it to factory defaults and will be trading it in this afternoon!

As someone for whom this trick worked (there seem to be plenty of people who haven't been successful and are calling the technique a fake in retaliation), I've got a few pointers/observations:

1. Follow the instructions to the letter; don't get lazy/bored and skip anything
2. You may get a funky smell and a haze forming as you heat the system, this is (hopefully) the solder melting.
3. Keep moving the hairdryer constantly, if you don't then the system case will melt and the RJ45 (network) and HDMI ports will deform, thus rendering the system useless.
4. Cool the system THOROUGHLY before testing.  It takes at least 40 mins.
5. DO NOT move the system until it is totally cool; you've melted the solder, moving it whilst still warm may cause more dry joints than you had before!

Anyway, now I've got my savegames back I'm now enjoying the last few hours playing Uncharted on Crushing difficulty to get my seventh platinum trophy!  Feel free to give me a shout if you need any more information on the fix :)